New Coronavirus Kills 2 More People In Saudi Arabia

May 07, 2013

“Two more people in Saudi Arabia have died from a new strain of coronavirus that has emerged in the Middle East, bringing the toll in the kingdom’s latest outbreak to seven, the [WHO] said on Tuesday,” Reuters reports, noting, “Worldwide, there have been 30 laboratory-confirmed infections with the new virus, including 18 deaths, since it came to scientists’ attention last September” (Nebehay, 5/7). According to the Wall Street Journal, “International public-health officials say they are as concerned about the coronavirus as they are about the new H7N9 avian flu virus that recently began sickening people in eastern China,” and that “Saudi Arabia’s announcements in the past five days of seven new deaths from a SARS-like virus have heightened fears that the Mideast outbreak is entering a more-aggressive phase” (Knickmeyer, 5/6). “In a move that may end more than seven months of confusion, an international group of scientists and public health officials will soon recommend that the new virus be called Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)” ScienceInsider writes (Enserink, 5/6).